Thursday, March 20, 2014

The billion dollar candidate

An inspiring (true) story. The IITs have given much to the nation but much more is expected (and from other elite academic institutions as well). It is also to be hoped that Mr Nilekani's charitable donations will be focused on improving education of all stripes (engineering, medical, liberal arts, K-12 etc).

.....In
what would perhaps make him the richest Lok Sabha candidate, ahead of
officially declaring his assets, when he files the nomination papers
here on Friday, former UIDAI chairman and Bangalore South Congress
candidate Nandan Nilekani on Thursday announced that his wife Rohini and
he were worth Rs 7,700 crore.

"I started out with Rs 200 in my
pocket, when I graduated from IIT. We founded the Infosys with Rs
10,000," Nilekani and Rohini said in a statement issued to declare their
assets.

Nilekani said of the Rs 7,700 crore, almost 80% of the
wealth remains in Infosys shares, where he still owns 1.45% and Rohini
1.3%. "This wealth was created, while Infosys brought lakhs of jobs to
Bangalore. The company also shared a lot of wealth with our employees
through ESOPs," he added.Apart from the huge assets, Nilekani
said: "The biggest thing the money Infosys brought me is the freedom to
do what I want. And what I want, is to give millions more the
opportunities I had."

According to him the Infosys story,
inspired a generation of young Indians to start something on their own,
to take risks that created wealth for the country, as well as millions
of new jobs.

In the statement, the couple said they have
donated almost Rs 400 crore of their wealth to various causes and
charities.

"'I am proud of the fact
that my wealth is completely transparent. I haven't made any of my money
illegally, or hid it in investments outside the country. Nothing is
hidden in someone else's bank account. It is all completely transparent
and tax-paid," Nilekani said.regards